We’re over the hump. Week 6 was, in the words of our excellent part 2 administrator, the week that was trying to kill me. In an already crowded teaching timetable, I had an extra six hours of teaching. This was self-inflicted. Another way of looking at it is that I am a victim of my own success. When I proposed a module with a blog post assessment at the end of term, I thought it would be a good idea to schedule an extra seminar so that I could give the students a chance to explore what make a good blog post and how the software that they need to use works. Never in a million years did I expect to have 75 students on the course. Never in a million years did I expect the plan to generate 6 extra hours of teaching. But it did.

It’s been an interesting week. Not only did I have all the teaching, there was a really interesting presentation and q and a on the REF with Margot Finn, which set me thinking about my own writing and ways that I might be able to improve it. I talked with my collaborators on my grant application, and we’re beginning to think that the idea is getting there – I’m hoping to do a little more work on the proposal on Sunday. And I’ve arranged to meet with one of the senior researchers in the department to discuss the proposal in a couple of weeks, which should be not only really helpful, but fun.

Today I spent the morning doing work finalising the new edition of the Historical Association’s members’ magazine, The Historian, which is due to go to print on Monday morning and this afternoon, and I spent this afternoon doing some edits to a lecture on musical sources that I’ve given to the second years for the last few years. I think it’s far better for the edits, and I’m looking forward to giving it in week 8. It’s Friday evening, and frankly, I feel like I’ve had a very productive week. And despite being tired, I’ve enjoyed it.